©MakeMineLemon – Spicy Spinach Dip
Spicy Spinach Dip
I had some left over pine nuts from my angel hair pasta with feta and pine nuts so I thought I would use them up by making spicy spinach dip. I thought this was an ideal place for them. Pine nuts are a little pricey so I did not want to waste one little nut.
I keep them in my freezer since they are quick to go rancid.
I have tasted a lot of bad dips in the old days, made with not so great mayonnaise, and bad packages of preservatives. Well no more. This recipe is fresh, it’s healthy, and it is delicious. I think I have a decent vocabulary. However, the more I blog the more I grapple with an appropriate word to describe recipes. I am not try not to be a smarty-pants, but sometimes yummy just lacks sincerity. I mean really how good is it? Okay, I found the correct word. I think this spicy spinach dip recipe is fabulous.
I found this recipe on Mari’s site, Once Upon A Plate. If there were not laws against it, I would like to personally follow Mari around and see what she is making. This recipe is so simple, but every time I make something she has made I feel like I could actually be a good cook someday. Mari, I am kidding about the stalking thing.
When googling this I did see this recipe on Food & Wine, but I would never have made this without seeing Mari’s version. Her photos are that good. I did have one issue with the Food & Wine version, it called for frozen spinach. I have seen a lot of really good cooks use frozen spinach, but I don’t understand it. There is something unappealing about that little brick of green. Just make your own. It only takes a couple minutes. Spinach is always sandy, so wash the spinach well. While still beaded with water drop into a hot skillet just until it is wilted. I guess you could microwave it just to wilt.
Do you own a ricer? Use it if you have one, or some paper towels, or a coffee filter. Or, if you must, use a clean dishtowel. I have seen Rachel Ray do that, and I have to tell you I cringe that you would stain a perfectly good towel, but who am I to tell her what to do. She makes a bazillion dollars telling us how to do things. I bought my ricer years ago on “the throw-away rack”, that’s the marked down isle as my sister relative refers to it. Ricers are wonderful for refined mashed potatoes if you are one of those people that suffer making lumpy mashed potatoes, but I digress. Use it for squeezing out the moisture of the spinach. Chop up the spinach, add to other ingredients and mix.
Toast some flatbread, or you can use sliced toasted French baguette. I do buy Trader Joes baked pita chips, one of the few packaged indulgence; not too salty, not too fat, and I try very hard not to over indulge. But, when it is all said and done, if I have pigged out, it is just spinach, yogurt, nuts, and spices. So how bad can that be? This is a real keeper.
I think this would even be good as a topper for baked potato, but I will let you work that part out.
So thank you Mari. I strive to be half the cook you are. Be sure to come back, but everyone please visit her site for the food and for the photography. Check her Mother Daughter Tea Party and her Chicken Stories. Delightful. Thank you Food & Wine. And thank you Fage for the decent yogurt.
Ok, the chickens just make me giggle.
- 1 cup Greek-style plain nonfat yogurt
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ½ small sweet onion, minced
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon pure chili powder
- Pinch of cayenne
- One bunch of spinach (or 10-ounce package frozen whole-leaf spinach, thawed)
- Salt
- Squeeze of lemon
- Mise en place ~ Gather ingredients.
- Scoop the yogurt into a coffee filter or paper towel-lined strainer set over a bowl.
- Strain at room temperature for 30 minutes; you should end up with a ½ cup yogurt.
- Heat olive oil in a small skillet.
- Add minced onions, sauté.
- Add pine nuts.
- Stir over high heat until onion and pine nuts are golden brown, watch carefully as this mixture can go from golden to burned in a moment.
- Stir cumin, coriander and chili powder into pan, just to bloom the spices.
- Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.
- Meanwhile steam spinach, then squeeze as much liquid from the spinach as possible; using your hands or a potato ricer.
- Finely chop spinach, pay particular attention to cut the stringy stems and veins into small pieces.
- Place spinach in a medium bowl and stir in onion – pine nut – yogurt mixture to thoroughly combine, add salt to taste and stir again.
- Add a few drops of lemon juice with the salt.
I am taking this to
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